Search Publications
The ALMA-PILS survey: the sulphur connection between protostars and comets: IRAS 16293-2422 B and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
van Dishoeck, Ewine F.; Drozdovskaya, Maria N.; Jørgensen, Jes K. +9 more
The evolutionary past of our Solar system can be pieced together by comparing analogous low-mass protostars with remnants of our Protosolar Nebula - comets. Sulphur-bearing molecules may be unique tracers of the joint evolution of the volatile and refractory components. ALMA Band 7 data from the large unbiased Protostellar Interferometric Line Sur…
Cometary plasma response to interplanetary corotating interaction regions during 2016 June-September: a quantitative study by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium
Henri, Pierre; Simon Wedlund, Cyril; Nilsson, Hans +14 more
Four interplanetary corotating interaction regions (CIRs) were identified during 2016 June-September by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) monitoring in situ the plasma environment of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) at heliocentric distances of ∼3-3.8 au. The CIRs, formed in the interface region between low- and high-speed solar wind st…
Summer outbursts in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as observed by Rosetta-VIRTIS
D'Aversa, E.; Kappel, D.; Erard, S. +20 more
We present an analysis of transient events observed by the Visible InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer, instrument aboard Rosetta, for the dates of 2015 August 10, September 13 and 14, during the two months surrounding the comet perihelion passage of the Rosetta spacecraft. We detected and characterized events with life-times ranging from 26 min…
The phase function and density of the dust observed at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Lasue, J.; Jorda, L.; Lamy, P. L. +44 more
The OSIRIS camera onboard Rosetta measured the phase function of both the coma dust and the nucleus. The two functions have a very different slope versus the phase angle. Here, we show that the nucleus phase function should be adopted to convert the brightness to the size of dust particles larger than 2.5 mm only. This makes the dust bursts observ…
Methyl isocyanate (CH3NCO): an important missing organic in current astrochemical networks
Gratier, P.; Coutens, A.; Wakelam, V. +3 more
Methyl isocyanate (CH3NCO) is one of the important complex organic molecules detected on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by Rosetta's Philae lander. It was also detected in hot cores around high-mass protostars along with a recent detection in the solar-type protostar IRAS 16293-2422. We propose here a gas-grain chemical model to fo…
Dynamic unmagnetized plasma in the diamagnetic cavity around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Henri, Pierre; Nilsson, Hans; Hajra, Rajkumar +12 more
The Rosetta orbiter witnessed several hundred diamagnetic cavity crossings (unmagnetized regions) around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its two year survey of the comet. The characteristics of the plasma environment inside these diamagnetic regions are studied using in situ measurements by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium instruments. Althoug…
Hall effect in the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Altwegg, K.; Huang, Z.; Jia, X. +8 more
Magnetohydrodynamics simulations have been carried out in studying the solar wind and cometary plasma interactions for decades. Various plasma boundaries have been simulated and compared well with observations for comet 1P/Halley. The Rosetta mission, which studies comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, challenges our understanding of the solar wind and…
Dynamical properties and acceleration of hierarchical dust in the vicinity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Blum, J.; Hartogh, P.; Rezac, L. +4 more
A significant fraction of cometary dust grains leaving the nucleus surface are extremely porous and fluffy particles as revealed by recent observation from the Rosetta mission. In this paper our aim is to investigate the dynamics of such grains when subjected to a gas flow, representing the cometary outgassing. We perform numerical experiments to …
The oxygen isotopic composition (18O/16O) in the dust of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko measured by COSIMA on-board Rosetta
Hilchenbach, M.; Engrand, C.; Kissel, J. +5 more
The oxygen isotopic ratio 18O/16O has been measured in cometary gas for a wide variety of comets, but the only measurements in cometary dust were performed by the Stardust cometary sample return mission. Most such measurements find a value of the ratio that is consistent with Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW) within er…
Plasma density structures at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Nilsson, H.; Goetz, C.; Henri, P. +7 more
We present a Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) case study based on four events in 2015 autumn at various radial distances, phase angles and local times, just after the perihelion of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Pulse-like (high-amplitude, up to minutes in time) signatures are seen with several RPC instruments in the plasma density (with the LAng…